◆By Zhang Ting

　　The best-kept courtyard house in Beijing is Gong Wang Fu, or the Prince Gong Palace. Covering 5.7 hectares of land in the core area of Beijing, it is the world's largest courtyard house.

　　The palace is situated in the Western Street of Qian Hai, on the northern shore of Shicha Lake, Western District, Beijing. It is a comparatively well preserved Princes?residences in Beijing City.

　　The palace consists of three lines of buildings and is divided into two parts, the living quarter and garden. In the living quarter structure, there are five courtyards from south to north in file. From east to west are three set courtyards, east middle and west in a row, among which Xijinzhai (former name Qing Yi Hall) in the western set is most famous. It was built by imitating the Ning Shou Gong (Palace of Peace and Longevity) in the Forbidden City, adopting the hook connection structure. A partitioned-off section of a large room with a heating stove was built inside the hall, which is deep and broad, bright and spacious with superb design.

　　On the central line stand one behind another, three structures: the Main Hall, the Rear Hall and a 160-meters-long building with more than 40 rooms. Three courtyard houses form each of the east and west lines. A garden lies at the bake of the residence. Altogether, the complex has over 20 separate areas, each different in layout and style.

　　Part of the garden inside the Prince Gong's Residence is in the northern side of the living quarter where turning corridor, pavilion, mountain rock, flowers and trees are all in elegant layout. In the stone cave of the rockery above the lake, there is the Emperor Kang Xi's inscription of Chinese character褾u?(Good Fortune).

　　The design of the living quarter and garden of the Prince Gong Residence is imposing and magnificent. Rooms and broad yards are laid out in turnings and in maze, the scenery of which is exquisite and delicate. In the old days there was murmuring stream flowing through the Garden which has many similarities with the Grand View Garden.

　　The Grand view Garden is a fictional garden described in Dream of the Red Mansions, one of the best-known Chinese classic novels. But some people believe that the author's description of the fictional garden was based on the Prince Gong Palace since the two have much in common. Others challenge this view. Whether it was the Grand View Garden or the Prince Gong Palace is likely to remain a mystery forever.

　　It's a status symbol

　　Most residences of Qing Dynasty nobles are distributed in the inner city, and this has to do with the court's residence restrictions for the citizens. In layout, Beijing was like a series of overlapping squares with the Forbidden City at the center. The belt area immediately surrounding the Forbidden City was for buildings housing central government departments. The third belt area was for the residences of nobles, and that is where existing mansions are distributed. Further outside, in the fourth belt and beyond, was where ordinary people lived.

　　The masters of this Palace had changed a lot. In the beginning it belonged to He Shen, Councilor of the Court who was criminated in the fourth year of Emperor Jia Qing's reign (1799) resulting in the confiscation of the residence. The Emperor then bestowed it to his younger brother, Yong Lin and named it Palace of Prince Qing. When Emperor Xian Feng came to reign, he took it back, granted to his younger brother Yi Su and named it Prince Gong's Residence.

　　Since it was owned by Yi Xin, one of the highest-ranking nobles of the Qing Dynasty, the Prince Gong Palace is not only big but also of high standards. This is reflected in its five-room facade and great number of rooms, including 12 halls and seven bedrooms. It was against the rules for lower ranking officials to have a residence of the same caliber. The presence of stone lions in front of the residences shows that their owners were officials above Rank Five (in feudal society Chinese officials were divided into nine ranks).

　　The number of hair knots on the stone lions further indicates their ranking in the hierarchy: the emperor was entitled to 13 lines of hair knots, princes 12lines, and so on in descendingsgroupsfor officials of different ranks. House style and tile color had to follow strict rules, too. He Shen, was ordered by the emperor to kill himself. One of his crimes was his construction of a hall which was similar in style to the emperor's Ningshou Hall. Reflection of officials?status in the architectural styles of their residences was a striking feature of China's feudal hierarchical system. Prince Gong Palace is a rare example.